Enriching Cysteine-Containing Peptides Using a Sulfhydryl-Reactive Alkylating Reagent with a Phosphonic Acid Group and Immobilized Metal Affinity Chromatography

The reduction of disulfide bonds and their subsequent alkylation are commonplace in typical proteomics workflows. Here, we highlight a sulfhydryl-reactive alkylating reagent with a phosphonic acid group (iodoacetamido-LC-phosphonic acid, 6C-CysPAT) that facilitates the enrichment of cysteine-containing peptides for isobaric tag-based proteome abundance profiling. Specifically, we profile the proteome of the SH-SY5Y human cell line following 24 h treatments with two proteasome inhibitors (bortezomib and MG-132) in a tandem mass tag (TMT)pro9-plex experiment. We acquire three datasets─(1) Cys-peptide enriched, (2) the unbound complement, and (3) the non-depleted control─and compare the peptides and proteins quantified in each dataset, with emphasis on Cys-containing peptides. The data show that enrichment using 6C-Cys phosphonate adaptable tag (6C-CysPAT) can quantify over 38,000 Cys-containing peptides in 5 h with >90% specificity. In addition, our combined dataset provides the research community with a resource of over 9900 protein abundance profiles exhibiting the effects of two different proteasome inhibitors. Overall, the seamless incorporation of alkylation by 6C-CysPAT into a current TMT-based workflow permits the enrichment of a Cys-containing peptide subproteome. The acquisition of this "mini-Cys" dataset can be used to preview and assess the quality of a deep, fractionated dataset.